London Evening Standard/London

The killer of 12-year-old schoolgirl Tia Sharp was jailed for at least 38 years yesterday and was led to the cells amid shouts of “beast”.
Stuart Hazell, 37, was poker-faced as he was ushered out of court at the Old Bailey by four prison officers.
Tia’s mother Natalie Sharp glared at him from her seat near the dock and her mother, Hazell’s former lover Christine Bicknell, sobbed.
Steven Carter, Tia’s father, bent forwards with his head in his hands.
In the public gallery there were yells of delight as the length of the life sentence was announced by justice Nicol.
One man shook his fist and there was at least one shout of “beast”.
The judge said Hazell had robbed Tia of “her career, her loves and family of her own”. She had been “a sparky girl through her life and you took that life from her”.
Hazell changed his plea on the fifth day of the trial yesterday to admit murder. His previous denials meant that Tia’s family were forced to sit through days of disturbing evidence including seeing a picture of her naked. However, Hazell has refused to reveal what he did and how he killed her.
He had briefly dated Tia’s mother and had been in a relationship with Bicknell for five-and-a-half years before the murder. He moved into her house in New Addington a week after they got together.
Tia died last August when she and Hazell were left alone while Bicknell worked a night shift.
Hazell sexually assaulted Tia and killed her, before hiding her body in the loft wrapped in a sheet and layers of plastic. He had secretly filmed her while she was asleep and had browsed child porn websites.
Police did not find Tia’s body for a week even though two officers separately searched the loft.
Scotland Yard has apologised to her family and commander Neil Basu said the officers were “devastated” by their failure.
The judge said Hazell had sexually assaulted Tia before probably smothering her. However, he could not be sure the murder had been sexually motivated as Hazell could have killed through “shame and fear” of what Tia might have said.
Equally he could not be certain the photo had been taken after she was dead rather than when she was asleep. However, the picture was a serious aggravating feature which increased his sentence along with Tia’s age, the abuse of her and her family’s trust and the way Hazell had concealed the body.
His guilty plea deserved “only the most modest credit”. Outside court Natalie Sharp shook her head when asked if she was pleased with the sentence. Tia’s father said it had not brought justice because “justice would only be if she would be here”.